In general, autodialers and predictive dialers are known in the art. Basically, an autodialer (AD) is an electronic device that automatically places telephone calls to selected telephone numbers over a telecommunications network, for example, such as a public switched telephone network (PSTN). A predictive dialer (PD) is essentially a particular type of AD that uses one or more predictive algorithms, e.g., to regulate various aspects of call placement or other behaviors of the PD. In other words, PDs are essentially a subset of ADs. Accordingly, when referring to ADs herein, it is to be understood that such references are intended to include PDs as well.
With reference to FIG. 1, commonly an AD 10 is used by a call center (CC) 20 or other like facility to automatically place telephone calls to selected telephone numbers and/or targeted parties. In a typical example, a telemarketing company or other organization may use the CC 20 and/or AD 10 to automatically place a significant volume or number of marketing calls, survey calls or other similar telephone calls to the telephone numbers associated with a targeted demographic. Commonly, the CC 20 is served by an end office (EO) 30 or other telecommunications switching facility that provides the CC 20 access to the PSTN 40 or other telecommunications network over which the telephone calls are placed. As shown, the EO 30 is commonly equipped with a telecommunications switch 32, e.g., a class 5 switch such as Lucent Technologies 5ESS or another similar telecommunications switch (be it a hardswitch, a softswitch or otherwise), and the AD 10 is operatively connected to the switch 32 in the usual manner as is known in the art.
Commonly, the AD 10 places a plurality of calls simultaneously and/or in rapid succession to keep a calling campaign progressing as quickly as possible. Often, the CC 20 is provisioned with a plurality of workstations 22 that are operatively connected to the AD 10. As shown, each workstation 22 is manned by a CC operator or agent 24. Accordingly, e.g., when a call placed by the AD 10 is answered by or otherwise connected to the called party, then that call is also routed and/or connected to the workstation 22 of the next available agent 24 at the CC 20. In this manner, the agent 24 receiving the call may communicate with and/or otherwise service the particular called party to which the call was placed.
Often, the CC 20 is interested in connecting called parties to agents 24 as rapidly and/or efficiently as possible to maximize productivity and/or the use of agent time or manpower. Accordingly, there is generally the desire to have the AD 10 place calls as rapidly as its capabilities allow. However, if left unchecked, the rate or flow of placed calls from the AD 10 may at times overload the switch 32 and/or the EO 30 serving the CC 20. That is to say, generally, the switch 32 and/or the EO 30 can only handle or support a limited or otherwise finite amount of call traffic at any given time, and in addition to serving the CC 20, the EO 30 typically also serves other telephone service subscribers, e.g., having customer premises equipment (CPE) and/or other end user telecommunication devices that are operatively connected to the switch 32 in the usual manner as is known in the art. Accordingly, e.g., at peak calling hours, the switch 32 and/or EO 30 may already be handling or otherwise processing a significant volume or amount of call traffic, and if at this time the AD 10 at the CC 20 were to be left unchecked (i.e., allowed to place calls as rapidly its capabilities permitted), then the switch 32 and/or EO 30 could be overloaded or pushed to or near the limit of the volume of calls that it is capable of handling at any given time, thereby potentially diminishing the quality and/or availability of service to other subscribers and/or the CC 20 itself. While the present example illustrates the problem from the viewpoint of the originating EO 30 serving the CC 22, likewise, the same or a similar problem may be experienced at a terminating EO or other network node, e.g., when a particular calling campaign targets telephone numbers that are served by the same terminating EO or targets called parties that are otherwise clustered together or served by the same or a limited number of network facilities. In any event, however, previously developed ADs have not been adequately equipped or provisioned to suitably adjust their call placement rate or flow to accommodate or alleviate call traffic congestion experienced in the originating EO, the terminating EO or nodes elsewhere in the network.
Accordingly, a new and improved AD and/or autodialing method is disclosed that overcomes the above-referenced problems and others.